My friend Megan was moving across the country from Los Angeles back home to Alabama and we’ve been in contact about it for a month or so. We wanted to organize somewhere to get together for a few days. Originally she was considering coming through Colorado but it didn’t really make sense since it was completely out of the way for her. So we decided to connect in New Mexico.
I didn’t mind too much because I could do some skiing at Taos on the way down. The drive took about 5 hours and I was able to camp ten minutes outside the resort. A very different situation than what I had experienced at the resorts in Colorado.
The mountain itself was a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t as big as the mountains I have skied thus far in Colorado but it was certainly steep. They were in need of snow (what’s new) but I had still had a fun time. The only complaint really was the lack of sun. The way that the mountain is situated it basically sits in the shade all day. So it was a colder experience than I would like.
I made a friend towards the end of the day. I was sitting down at the base relaxing a bit and she just kind of came up to me and started talking to me. She thought I was somebody else but we got to talking and I grabbed her number. More on that later.
From there I was off to Santa Fe to meet up with Megan. We had some dinner and we found a place to sleep just outside of town. A dog park we could park in overnight without being bothered. Worked out alright and it snowed a bit overnight too. Megan loved that.
We were quickly on our way to Valles Caldera the next morning. It is a nature preserve northwest of Santa Fe. The ride up was beautiful but to be honest, there isn’t much to do there during the winter. There are some great natural hot springs in this area but they were extremely difficult to get to on account of the snow. The roads weren’t plowed and the Chevy wasn’t going to be able to make the trip so I didn’t try.
We found a few hikes to do during the day and we found some small hot springs to hike to. They weren’t really big enough or hot enough to entice us to take a dip but at the end of the day, it was still cool to find some. We made the best of an area that really just didn’t have that much to offer this time of year.
We slept on top of the pass near Jemez Springs because we couldn’t find a proper campsite. Similar to the hot springs, we just couldn’t get to the campsites on account of the snow. It was frustrating because I really wanted to have a fire. It was brutally cold that night.
The next day we went back towards Santa Fe and we stopped off at Bandelier National Monument. It’s an old Native American settlement with cliff dwellings and everything. They have ladders and you can climb into the cliff dwellings too. Kind of a small taste of what Mesa Verde would look like I would imagine.
That evening Megan hit the road again and I made my way back towards Taos. The friend I made was working at Taos for the season and suggested I come back and ski another day. She offered to give me a free day pass and I was happy to accept.
The lift tickets on the weekend are fairly expensive. So she was able to save me $170 which was unreal. It had snowed a few days earlier and the conditions were much better than the first day. I really owe her for making my experience in Taos that much better.